Wednesday, April 10, 2013

A couple of years ago, I introduced the Queen Anne Cowl pattern (details here: http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/queen-anne-cowl--fingering-sock-weight-version)I loved the combination of the beaded rib pattern with a leafy panel that looks much harder to do than it really is. The Queen Anne neighborhood of Seattle had been an important part of my daily orbit for the previous few years, home to both my job at Hilltop Yarn and the Rocket Boys' time at pre-school. About the time I was creating the pattern, all that changed - Rocket Boys aged out of pre-school, and Hilltop closed. I found that one of the little things I missed was the drive along a winding stretch of road near cemetery, where huge old trees arched over the road creating the nicest sort of tunnel. So, when it came time to name the cowl, I chose "Queen Anne" to keep that memory alive. After that, I got caught up in other projects, but always knew that I was not done with that stitch combination. This winter, I finally returned to create the mitts that I felt the cowl needed to go with it. When I designed the Rose Hill Mitts pattern, I realized that there was a lot of demand among women for fingerless mitts in multiple sizes, particular larger ones, so this mitt comes in three sizes. All take less than 200 yards, so that the cowl and mitts can be knit from one 400 yard skein of fingering weight sock yarn. Of course, there are many of those to choose from, but the models are knit in Hazel Knits Artisan Sock.